Feasibility Study for an Impact Evaluation of Promise Neighborhoods

The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) is conducting market research to determine if sufficient interest and capability exists in the marketplace for the Feasibility Study for an Impact Evaluation of Promise Neighborhoods requirement, hereafter referred to as "Promise Neighborhoods." This notice is NOT a request for proposals, but is an invitation for potential offerors to express interest and provide information regarding their relevant knowledge, skills and capabilities. Information submitted in response to this Sources Sought Notice may be used to assist the Department in finalizing its acquisition strategy. Disclaimer: The Department will not pay for the provision of any information nor will it compensate any respondents for providing this information. This notice in no way obligates the Government to award any contract to any interested party. Feedback will not be provided to any interested party who submits information to the Department in response to this notice. Capability Statement Submission Deadline The deadline for submitting Capability Statements and Basic Information responses is August 31, 2017 by 12:00 noon (ET) via e-mail to the following individuals: Endrias.Leuleseged@ed.gov, and cc: Veronica.Price@ed.gov Primary Point of Contact: Endrias Leuleseged Contract Specialist Endrias.Leuleseged@ed.gov Secondary Point of Contact: Veronica Price Contracting Officer Veronica.Price@ed.gov Capability Statement Instructions In response to the attached DRAFT Promise Neighborhoods Performance Work Statement (PWS), the Department hereby solicits capability statements from eligible, interested parties. Capability Statements shall be no longer than 4 pages (single-spaced, with a minimum of one-inch margins and 12-point font). Interested Parties shall provide responses for all content areas noted below. The information requested in the Basic Information Section does NOT count against the 4-page Capability Statement page limitation. BASIC INFORMATION (a) Please state your business/company name, address, and DUNS number. Include contact information such as a corporate email address and website URL. (b) Please state your business size status (i.e., large or small) in the stated NAICS code of 541720. Provide all socioeconomic categories for your company and the corresponding NAICS code, and a statement as to whether NAICS code of 541720 is the most appropriate code. (c) State if the requirement should be set-aside for small business (or not), and why (or why not)? (d) State if your business believes that a current Department Blanket Purchase Agreement would be a viable procurement tool. (e) State if your business believes that GSA OASIS contracts are a viable procurement tool; and if so, under which pool? (f) State if your company believes that the DRAFT Promise Neighborhoods PWS contains any unduly restrictive language or content? Why? Please cite specific examples and provide feedback. (g) State if the DRAFT Promise Neighborhoods PWS content provides opportunities for small business subcontracting (or not). Why (or why not)? CAPABILITY STATEMENT CONTENT AREAS The capability statement must name specific key personnel who would be proposed to lead the work described in the DRAFT PWS and then describe the expertise and experience of these specific personnel in each of the areas listed below. If a subcontractor or consultant is mentioned, letters from these organizations or individuals must be attached to demonstrate their willingness and availability to participate in this work. These attached letters do NOT count toward the 4-page limit. In addition, if a subcontractor or consultant is mentioned, the capability statement must describe how the proposed prime contractor can conduct at least 51% of the work described in the DRAFT PWS if the prime contractor is a small business. - Experience and skill in assessing the feasibility of, designing, leading, managing, and carrying out large-scale complex impact studies of education programs, policies, and practices - especially national studies of federal grant programs in education. Interested parties shall provide a minimum of two examples of personnel leading these activities. This includes experience managing studies that use random assignment and other high-quality designs for assessing causal impacts (e.g., quasi-experimental, matched comparisons, or regression discontinuity). It also includes studies that required identification and recruitment of multiple sites (especially federal grantees, districts, and schools, as well as non-grantees to serve as a comparison group), close collaboration with research sites to carry out random assignment, extensive data collection and analysis (including student records, survey, and implementation data), effective cost control, and timeliness. Interested parties must explicitly and specifically describe the named personnel's actual role in each of these activities. Interested parties must also clearly describe for each example study what impact design was used (e.g., random assignment, regression discontinuity), what intervention or program was being studied, how many sites were recruited and at what level (i.e., school, district, student), as well as what type of data collection was carried out and for how long. - Experience and skill in authoring well-written design reports for large-scale education impact studies. Interested parties shall provide a minimum of two examples of personnel producing such design options reports. This includes explaining how these reports clearly and concisely present alternative possible study designs addressing the policy-relevant research questions to be answered, intervention choices, methodological design (e.g., RCT, regression discontinuity, matched comparisons), recruitment options, data collection options, and analysis options. It also includes demonstrating that the design reports considered the tradeoffs of various study design options and that the reports made clear recommendations about whether and how to proceed with a full study. - Substantive knowledge relevant to the program to be studied, as described within the DRAFT Promise Neighborhoods PWS. Interested parties shall provide a minimum of two examples showing that personnel have relevant knowledge to effectively study the Promise Neighborhoods program, particularly capitalizing on what is known from the research literature. This includes knowledge and experience related to place-based initiatives (especially Promise Neighborhoods or initiatives with a similar structure), the specific content areas that place-based initiatives typically target, and evaluation methods related to random assignment and quasi-experimental design. This also includes knowledge and experience of how to work with federal program offices and grantees to efficiently coordinate and collaborate on a national impact evaluation of the federal grant program. In addition, the capability statement shall address the following experience and capacity at the corporate level: - Experience with projects similar in nature to that described in the DRAFT Promise Neighborhoods PWS. Interested parties shall provide evidence of successful corporate experience with a minimum of two past projects that are similar to that described in the DRAFT Promise Neighborhoods PWS. Interested parties must explicitly and specifically describe how/why the two past projects are substantively similar in nature to the requirement described in the DRAFT Promise Neighborhoods PWS - in particular, the content and technical expertise required, the nature and complexity of the education program to be studied, the type of data to be collected, and the type of site recruitment required.